Press This WordPress Community Podcast

BuddyPress is a classic plugin that turns any WordPress site into a community hub with message boards and users. It’s been around for 15 years and is active on over 100,000 sites. Even WordPress.org uses BuddyPress! On this week’s episode of Press This we talk with iMath and David Cavins about the new features coming to BuddyPress. These features are so big, it required a huge overhaul of how Budd...

Have you ever had a hard time finding an article or item while searching on someone else’s WordPress site? Maybe the results weren’t what you were looking for, or maybe the results were being displayed in some bizarre order. Search on WordPress is a notoriously difficult problem, especially for older sites with years of content. In this episode of Press This, we talk with Jared Hutchinson and Luke...

Join us by the campfire for another spine-tingling journey through the dark corners of the web in 'WordPress Nightmares.' Hear tales of WordPress sites behaving like 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers,' and a peculiar connection between custom ticket software and Blink-182. This year's guests include Amber and Steve Sawaya (from Anchor and Alpine) and Derek Ashauer. Advertising Inq...

In this episode of Press This, WP Engine Product Marketing Manager, Sr. Josh Dailey joins the show as we dive into WooSesh 2023 and its “State of the Woo” presentation. This year’s State of the Woo offered great insights into the current stats, new features, and big trends in WooCommerce. Over 4.4 million stores are powered by WooCommerce, so the growth has been tremendous, but now Woo is encourag...

On this episode of Press This, we delve into the fascinating world of the Fediverse with our special guest, Matthias Pfefferle, the creator of the ActivityPub plugin. Learn how ActivityPub works and what makes federated websites different than traditional social media sites. Matthias walks us through the pros and cons of federated media and teaches us how WordPress users can connect their sites to...

In this episode of Press This, we explore the critical topic of GPL compatibility for WordPress plugins with Jeffrey Paul, Director of Open Source at 10up. Discover how a GitHub Action can ensure your plugins remain open-source compliant while streamlining your development process. If you're a WordPress developer or contributor, this episode is a must-listen for staying in the GPL's good g...

After October 31st, MySQL 5.7 will no longer be officially supported. In this episode of Press This, WP Engine Product Manager Carmen Johnson walks us through the critical transition from MySQL 5.7 to 8.0 and its impact on an estimated 75% of WordPress sites that are still running on 5.7. Learn why this shift matters, the security considerations involved, and the steps you need to take to ensure a...

"In this episode of PressThis, we discuss news from around the WordPress community in our monthly segment Word Around the Campfire. We talk about upcoming features of WordPress 6.4, MySQL's ending support for version 5, and much more. We also talk about some upcoming WordCamps and events like WordPress Accessibility Day, as well as some recent events that have been canceled.  If you're...

Get ready to dive deep into the world of affiliate marketing for WordPress companies with our special guest, Dustin Howes, the Chief Coach at PerformanceMarketingManager.com. Join us as we explore the fundamental purpose of affiliate marketing and how it can be a game-changer for businesses using WordPress. Dustin shares invaluable insights, strategies, and best practices that WordPress users can...

In this episode of Press This we talk with Thomas Fanchin, the partnership manager at Weglot, about the benefits of multilingual websites on WordPress. Thomas explains how translations can increase website traffic, improve accessibility, and boost SEO. We then dive into the steps necessary to set up a multilingual site using Weglot, emphasizing audience research, language selection, and SEO settin...

There are so many ways to reach your customers these days, but newsletters still stand out as one of the best ways to engage with your customers. In this episode of Press This, we talk to Lesley Sim, the co-founder of Newsletter Glue, about how you can easily integrate and send newsletters from your WordPress site. Lesley also tells us about why you should use newsletters for some things, and soci...

Ever since Faust.js officially came out of beta in June of 2023, the team has been collecting RFCs (or requests for comments) on Github to steer the direction of the project. In this episode, we talk with Joe Fusco, a Senior Software Developer at WP Engin, who tells us how listening to users will help to create a project for the community. We also talk about some recently added features and the st...

How can WordPress help keep the web weird? In this episode of Press This, we talk with David Wolfpaw about the IndieWeb, a people-focused alternative to the “corporate web” that aims to keep the web independent. We talk about the philosophy behind the IndieWeb movement, how it can benefit the web for everyone, and what plugins and tools WordPress users have to take advantage of it. Advertising Inq...

In this episode of Press This, we talk with Rogier Lankhorst, the Lead Developer of Really Simple Plugins, about what WordPress users need to know about SSL. Rogier discusses what inspired him to make the Really Simple SSL plugin and what it’s like maintaining the 9th most popular plugin in the WordPress plugin repository. This is a great episode for anyone who wants to learn more about SSL certif...

In this episode of PressThis, we cover the latest updates from WordPress core and the WordPress community. Listen now to hear about the big updates in WP 6.3, plus news about ACF, AI, and upcoming events like WordCamp US.  Our special guests for this episode are Damon Cook, a Developer Advocate at WP Engine, and Mike Davey, the Senior Editor at Delicious Brains. Listen now! Advertising Inquiries:...

We’re just a few short weeks away from the release of WordPress 6.3—a significant milestone for the WordPress community as this release officially wraps up Gutenberg Phase 2. To find out more about some of the new features coming to the site editor, Gutenberg, and beyond, we asked Justin Tadlock, WordPress Developer Advocate sponsored by Automattic, to join us for this episode of Press This and te...

Marketers and web developers often go with their gut feelings, but Viola Gruner, Head of Marketing at Inpsyde, believes in the power of testing over guessing. In this episode, Viola discusses the importance of data-driven decision-making and shares her insights on how to test and confirm ideas instead of relying on assumptions. She highlights surprising results she encountered during experiments,...

In this episode of Press This, we have the privilege of speaking with Bud Kraus, Chief Education Officer at Joy of WP and a remarkable WordPress educator. What makes Bud’s journey unique is his perspective as a visually impaired individual, which has not only shaped his relationship with WordPress but also made him an exceptional instructor. Join us as we dive into Bud’s teaching techniques, explo...

In this episode of Press This, we have the privilege of hosting Hari Shanker, an Open Source Program Manager at Automattic, who is deeply involved in improving the WordPress contributor experience. In this episode, we talk about the WordPress Contributor Working Group and the newly created Mentorship Program. Hari highlights the challenges faced by contributors in open-source projects and shares s...

Whether you call it XR, VR, AR, or the metaverse, spatial computing might be the next big trend in how we use the web. This week we talk to Anthony Burchell, a developer on ACF and the creator of the 3 Object Viewer plugin, about how WordPress can power online virtual experiences. We talk about how to get started in the XR space and what effect Apple's Vision Pro headset might have on the indu...

AI is coming, should we be concerned? In this episode of Press This we talk with James Dominy, a Technical Architect, about a talk he recently gave at WordCamp Europe titled "How I learned to stop worrying & love our AI overlords". It's an interesting conversation about the rise of AI in WordPress and what the community is saying about it so far, Advertising Inquiries: https://redc...

Welcome to a special "Word Around the Campfire" edition of the Press This podcast. This month we talk with Sam Brockway, a community manager for Developer Relations at WP Engine, and Mike Davey, the Senior Editor of Delicious Brains, about WordPress's 20th anniversary. We also talk about the controversial releases of WordPress 6.2.1 and 6.2.2. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.c...

What do WordPress agencies need to know about using AI tools? In this episode of Press This, we talk to Joe Hoyle, the CTO and co-founder of Human Made, about the ups and downs of using large language models and text-to-image generators for website development. We talk about using AI to create content, code your website, or even change how visitors interact with your site. If you are interested in...

In this episode of Press This, we interview WP Engine Principal Developer Advocate Brian Gardner about Frost, a new block-based theme for WordPress. Frost is a clean and powerful block-based theme that's designed to help people lean into Full Site Editing and build with more modular control across their site. It comes with a variety of features, including a built-in pattern library, a responsi...

Are you a WordPress developer who wants to take control of your custom field data? In this episode of Press This, we speak to WP Engine Senior Product Manager Iain Poulson, who shares exciting updates about new features in the widely-used Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin. With the release of ACF 6.1, users can now register custom post types and taxonomies, giving developers even more control ov...